When soft tissue tears away from bone, reattachment becomes necessary. Various fixation devices, including sutures, screws, staples, wedges, and plugs have been used in the past to secure soft tissue to bone. More recently, various types of threaded suture anchors have been developed.
The known suture anchors generally require that the surgeon tie knots in the suture to secure tissue to the bone. Tying surgical knots is tedious and time consuming. It would be preferable to be able to secure the soft tissue to the bone in one step without having to tie knots.
Accordingly, a need exists for a bioabsorbable anchor for soft tissue fixation that can be installed to secure tissue easily and effectively without sutures, and yet can provide improved anchoring capabilities. A need also exists for a soft tissue fixation device having a low profile configuration and improved structural properties.